How about a burger at half price?

Here's an idea on how to increase the sales of burgers by using simple SMS and location based services. The main idea behind this is to get closer to your customers and at the same time increase the sales and customer satisfaction. The idea is applicable to all goods that are fresh and made to order. It can be burgers, bread, ice cream, coffee, etc.


You enter a burger restaurant and place an order. You order additional tomatoes and onion. You get your order and eat the burger. That was delicious!


How can the restaurant be sure you will go there tomorrow? How can it simplify the order process and speed up delivery? Why not let the customer pre-order a burger for tomorrow for half the price? Then you are sure that the customer will be there tomorrow as well and since you know what the customer prefers you can have the order ready when the customer enters.



Let the customer send an SMS with the pre-order while in the restaurant. You know which customer it is and you know which restaurant from the location. When the customer gets closer to the restaurant the next day you automatically gets the information from the network and can start preparing the meal. When the customer enters the restauarnt he can go to the pre-order counter and collect the order. It is already paid so it's just to pick it up and eat.


This is possible through WLNG who can allow third party access to the network from an application. In this case the burger application connected to the ERP system of the restaurant or chain. The application can get the current location of the customer to identify which restaurant it is. The application also initiates a location trigger to know when the customer gets nearby the restaurant the next day and can initiate the pre-order. The application can charge the customer for the burger using content based charging. When the customer gets nearby the restaurant the next day it initiates the order and sends an SMS to the user informing about the pre-order being executed. When retrieving the order the customer can make another pre-order for the next day. In this case we are using the following technologies from WLNG:

• Network initiated SMS


• Application initiated SMS


• Location information


• Triggered location information


• Content based charging

And the careful reader asks himself, why does this let me make more money and raise the customer satisfaction? Let me give some of the reasons:

• By allowing pre-order you are sure that the customer will stay by your place the next day. He is not tempted by a competitors offers while goining towards your place


• The detailed order is already stored in the system so the customer does not have to tell you his personal style all the time. This increases customer satisfaction


• By giving him a rebate his loyalty is increased and he feels he gets something from you for being loyal


• And finally you get his mobile number and can start building trust and get permission for getting more detailed information about the customer. You can start collecting a little database about your customers and thus being able to make more effective marketing.


• You save money of not having to do so much advertising since you build up a base of loyal customers that pre-orders their favorite food (or whatever you sell). They will probably also tell their friends and you get more customers for free. Since they got you recommended they are more likely to become loyal customers. Now you only have to exceed their expectations :-)